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2nd Amendment in Bill of Rights
Ten amendments were added known as the bill of rights. The second stated "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". The second amendment is still not incorporated which means it only applies to the national government and not state and local governments. -
Creation of the NRA
In 1871 The National Rifle Association (NRA) is organized around its primary goal of improving American civilians marksmanship in preparation for war. Currently, its primary goal is to promote and advertise the use of rifles for american citizens whereas at the time it was claimed to strive for a scientific purpose. -
Mailing Firearms Act
Congress made a law that said people could not mail firearms because you could not prove who would receive the firearm. This was a important law to pass because without this law, guns would be possessed by many people who would do bad things with them. -
National Firearms Act
The National Firearms Act (NFA) was passed by President Roosevelt. The NFA imposed a tax of 200$, which was a high price at the time, for the transfer of any weapons. This brought down the chances of bad people owning guns. -
Carry License
The NFA required all dealers of firearms to carry a license. This limited the amount of people having a gun that should not have a gun. -
United States vs Miller
When congress heard this they ruled that due to the Nation Firearms Act of 1934, congress could regulate the interstate selling of the short barrel shotgun. The court said that there was no evidence that a sawed off shotgun “has some reasonable relationship to the preservation of a well regulated militia,” and thus “we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.” -
Upholds Ban
Supreme Court upholds controversial ban on right to shoot at someone’s feet in order to make them dance. This was a smart thing that the courts did because the initial thought was not intelligent. -
Gun Control Act
The GCA updated the NFA to fix issues, added language about “destructive devices”. Also it expanded the definition of "Machine Gun". Overall the bill banned importing guns that have “no sporting purpose,” and imposed age restrictions for the purchase of handguns (gun owners had to be 21). -
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
The enforcement of gun control was the duty of the US department of treasury up until 1972 when the ATF was created. The ATF was created to enforce current gun control laws as well as investigate illegal use, possession, and manufacture of firearms, explosives, alcohol and tobacco. The ATF was created to have an agency with the soul purpose of regulating guns, explosives, alcohol, and tobacco instead of having a whole government department have to control it as well as many other issues. -
Anti-handgun Law
The District of Columbia established an anti-handgun law which also requires registration of all rifles and shotguns within the District of Columbia. This limited the amount of guns in bad peoples possession. This law also took away the accessibility to handguns without official license. -
Firearm Owners Protection Act
The Firearms owners protection act was a massive gun control law passed in 1986 which amended the Gun control act of 1968 after seeing "loopholes" in the original system that could be fixed.
The Law enforcement protection section of this act also made it illegal to manufacture or import any bullet with the capability of piercing any bullet proof clothing. The 1968 legislation identified people that were not eligible to own firearms such as convicted felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill. -
Undetectable Firearms Act
A law that makes it unable to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm that is not detectable by a walk-through metal detector. Also, any firearm with major components that do not generate an accurate image before standard airport imaging technology is prohibited. -
Toy Gun Law
A law requiring that a "toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm shall have as an integral part, permanently affixed, a blaze orange plug inserted in the barrel of such toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm" was passed as section four of the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988. The law provided for alternative markings if the orange plug could not be used. However, the plug could be removed and the markings painted over -
Gun Free Zone Act
After increasing amounts of school shooting in recent decades, the United states congress decides to pass the Gun Free zone act in 1990. The gun free zone act also known as the crime control act of 1990 is an act by the US congress that prohibits any unauthorized individual form possessing an unsecured firearm in all public, parochial, and private schools or any public property within 1000 feet of them. -
Kill Counter
Congress begins requiring all gun owners to register their number of kills. This number is limited per year to allow others to keep track of gun ammo usage and gun usage. -
Brady Handgun Act
With gun homicide rates at a peak of 18,253 death a year, The Brady Handgun violence prevention act of 1993 was passed by the United States Congress and made it a requirement for background checks for every firearm purchase and created a 5 day waiting period until further legislation. It also again updated who can buy firearms, it added people who have been dishonorably discharged from the military, those who have renounced U.S. citizenship, and unlawful users of a controlled substances. -
Assault Weapons Ban
From 1994 until 2004, there was a ban on assault weapons for civilian use. As well as making it illegal for any minor to own any firearm or ammunition, privates sales and transfers to minors. The only exception to minors possessing firearms were for certain jobs such as ranching where minors can use guns on animals that eat produce or kill livestock, target practice, hunting, or a course of instruction on the safe and legal use of handguns. -
Lopez vs United States
Alfonzo Lopez carried a gun to school in Texas and he was charged with firearm possession on school grounds. These state charges were later dismissed and federal agents charged Lopez with violating the Gun-Free Safe Zones Act of 1990. This forbids "anybody who knows the are bringing a gun on school grounds". For this reason Lopez went to trial and had 6 months of prison and 2 years of supervised release. -
Printz vs United States
The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Printz vs United States, declares the background check requirement of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act unconstitutional. District Courts found the background-checks unconstitutional, but ruled that since this requirement was severable from the rest of the Brady Bill a voluntary background-check system could remain. -
National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)
The NICS system is a database that tracks all citizens criminal record and other important info. For every gun purchase from a licensed dealers in america, the dealer contacts the FBI and gives the agency the potential buyers name and info. The FBI then runs the individuals info through three different tests known as the NICS system. If it finds any violation, the user is not eligible to purchase a firearm. -
Trigger Lock Bill
The U.S. Senate passes a bill requiring trigger locks on all newly manufactured handguns and extending waiting period. Also requiring background check requirements to sales of firearms at gun shows. -
Utah Legislature Passes Law about Gun Control on College Campuses
On the basis that individuals should have rights to carry guns in public places, including college campuses, Utah became the first state to allow guns on campus. Since then, several states have followed, with the most recent one to join being Georgia as 11th in May of 2017. -
Federal Assault Weapons Ban Expires
A federal law in the US that included a prohibition on the sale to civilians of certain semi-automatic firearms, so called “assault weapons.” There was no legal definition of “assault weapons” prior to the law’s enactment. The ten-year ban was passed by Congress on September 13, 1994. Then was finally signed for the ban in 2004 -
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act
President Bush signs the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act limiting the ability of victims of crimes in which guns were used to sue firearms manufacturers and dealers. The law included an amendment requiring all new guns to come with trigger locks. This limited the amount of violence possible in the US. -
The Bipartisan NICS Improvement Amendments Act
The Bipartisan NICS Improvement Amendments Act was offered to improve federal and state electronic recordkeeping for use in backgrounds checks on people ineligible to possess firearms due to mental illness or domestic violence. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law. Then President Trump signed legislation overturning a rule to implement this law. The rule would have barred gun ownership by some who have been deemed mentally impaired by the Social Security Administration. -
District of Columbia vs Heller
In the court case Columbia vs Heller in 2008, Dick Heller was a D.C. special police officer who applied to get a license to own a handgun, when D.C. denied his request, Heller said that his second amendment right to own a gun was violated and sued the District of Columbia. D.C. argued that the second amendment was meant for purposes only related to the militia. The supreme court ruled that D.C. could only barre someone from owning a firearm if they were a threat to public safety such as a felon. -
Various State Gun Laws
Only 8 states and the District of Columbia have laws that ban specific weapons.All states and D.C. have concealed carry laws regarding permit systems. Unrestricted jurisdiction is when a permit is not required to carry a concealed handgun, Shall-issue jurisdiction is a permit that requires a license to carry a concealed handgun, but where the granting of such licenses is subject only to meeting determinate criteria laid out in the law. -
McDonald vs Chicago
Otis McDonald is a retired man who lived in a crime ridden neighborhood in Chicago who wanted a way to defend himself from frequent robberies. McDonald searched for a good way to defend his home until one day when he realized that the law that prevented him from owning a handgun was unconstitutional because in the case of The supreme court decided in a 5-4 decision that McDonalds right to own a firearm was protected in the constitution. -
Charleston Loophole Bill Fails
Democrats proposed closing what became known as the “Charleston loophole,” which allows federally licensed firearms dealers to proceed with a sale if the FBI doesn’t complete a background check in three days. Because of this “default proceed” rule, Roof was allowed to purchase his firearm legally. The bill would have eliminated the three-day deadline. The bill never came up for a vote in either the House or Senate; Jim Clyburn and Richard Blumenthal, reintroduced the bill earlier this year. -
Bump stock legislation proposed
Lawmakers in both parties proposed banning “bump stocks” that accelerate a semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire following revelations that Paddock may have used the devices in the shooting. Murphy also introduced updated legislation to expand background checks. Paul Ryan, said regulations are the “smartest, quickest fix" to address rapid-fire devices like the one used in the Las Vegas mass murder; the legislation is still pending. -
Background Check Completion Act
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the BCCA. She said would close a current loophole in the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that allows gun sales to proceed if a background check is not completed after 72 hours, even if the gun buyer is not legally allowed to purchase a gun. “This is dangerous loophole that could allow criminals and those with mental illness to complete their purchase of firearms even though it would be unlawful for them to possess them,” said Feinstein.
